Silver Fire smoke blankets Las Cruces, Mesilla Valley

Sun-News report

Posted:
06/26/2013 02:07:04 PM MDT

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Smoke from the Silver Fire burning in the Gila National Forest blanketed southern New Mexico, including Las Cruces and most of the Mesilla Valley on Wednesday. The smoke-filled skies are likely to linger through the week.

Smoke from the Silver Fire burning in the Gila National Forest blanketed southern New Mexico, including Las Cruces and most of the Mesilla Valley on Wednesday. The smoke-filled skies are likely to linger through the week.

The haze that descended on the region Wednesday, obscuring views of the Organ Mountains and casting a brown cloud over Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley, could linger for the next couple of days before turning toward the west and southwest and blowing back over the Gila and southwestern New Mexico, said John Park, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Santa Teresa.

While fires burning in Colorado and in northern Mexico have been contributing to the regional haze, the bulk of the smoke choking residents is due to the Silver Fire, which fire officials say expanded Wednesday to more than 134 square miles.

The New Mexico Health Department warns residents to take precautions, especially if they have any health conditions or breathing difficulty.

Light winds and inversion conditions might cause some impacts Thursday morning, the health department reports. There is smoke haze over Las Cruces, but as of Wednesday afternoon, conditions were not severe enough to downgrade to a "moderate" air quality alert.

Heidi Krapfl, state bureau chief for the health department, said people should judge how much exposure to smoke is safe for them.

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"We don't have air quality monitors throughout the state," Krapfl said. "The best tool for people is visibility. Every day during fire season on our website, http://nmtracking.org/fire, we'll have the smoke impact for areas effected. We work with the U.S. Forest Service and National Weather Service to see where the smoke is going. If people can get online and look at the daily smoke outlook, it will give them a sense of where the smoke is going."

She suggests people visit the website and click on the visibility link.

"There's a mapping tool," Krapl said. "Click on the five-mile buffering tool, then go to Alamogordo and click to wherever they live in Alamogordo for the five-mile buffer zone. Once the visibility of smoke goes below five miles, that's when sensitivity levels for people who have asthma, heart disease, people over the age of 65 and very young children start to increase. It's when the Department of Health recommends people minimize their outdoor activity."

Firefighters and weather-watchers agree the only end in sight is for the summer monsoon season to kick off, a relief expected in early July. Meanwhile, a high pressure system may keep smoke trapped closer to the ground, Park said. It will take the summer rains to tap down the fires burning across the region and to clear the air.

"There's a slight chance of moisture over the weekend, starting around Saturday or Sunday," Park said. "More likely, it will be later on ... when a moisture surge off the Gulf of Mexico may start as early as Monday or Tuesday.